Calvert comes away empty-handed from Ottawa

Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert's trek to Ottawa on Thursday to get more equalization money was not a roaring success, he says.

Calvert said following talks with Prime Minister Stephen Harperthat the federal government is backing away from a Conservative election promise to give Saskatchewan a new equalization deal.

The proposed deal, similar to the ones Newfoundland and Labrador as well asNova Scotia received last year, would change the equalization formula in a way that would put an extra $800 million into provincial coffers, Calvert said.

"Nothing that the prime minister said would indicate that he intends to keep
his promise to Saskatchewan,"he said Friday.

"Therefore I conclude that the prime minister intends to break his promise to the people of Saskatchewan."

Calvert went on to issue a challenge to the province's Conservative members of Parliament.

"I am calling on the 12 Saskatchewan Conservative MPs to stand up for the province that elected them and demand that the prime minister of Canada keep their promise to the people of Saskatchewan."

When quizzed by reporters in Ottawa on Friday, one of those MPs, Blackstrap's Lynne Yelich, insisted Harper would live up to his commitments.

"I don't think there's any problem," she said.